DIVIDED BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 21517, 15 September 1933, Page 10

DIVIDED BRITAIN

NORTH-SOUTH SPLIT THE ATTACK OH " THE CITY " FINANCE AND INDUSTRY To illustrate what we want to say two examples. The first is what happened the other day at the Derby, the famous British horse race, and perhaps most famous race in the world. This national event is held annually on the no less famous course at Epsom, to the south of London, says a London correspondent writing in the ‘ New York Times.’

The peculiar thing about the racecourse is that it is situated on the socalled downs, which are common land. According to the ancient law of this country a common belongs to the public and cannot be enclosed. The result of this has been every year that in the week preceding the Derby, Londoners in their thousands have come out on the glorious freedom of the downs. They roamed all over the place, and even encamped there for the night. The grass on the course, in consequence, was badly trampled upon in. places, and the springy turf became iron-hard as if after the passage of a steam roller. This year the authorities had an inspiration. They surrounded the track with notices, in which the right of the public to circulate freely was proclaimed, but an appeal was made to the' sporting feeling of the people to preserve the grass for the horses. Thousands came out this year to the downs, but no one went beyond the line of notice boards, although there was not a single guard or policeman in sight. The grass, on the day of tho Derby, was like velvet. OuV other example is the following:— Members of the Stock Exchange received a copy of the letter addressed to their chairman by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In that private communication Mr Neville Chamberlain called attention to the fact that tho financial situation of the country cannot be considered quite satisfactory yet. He warned against any attempt on a large scale to organise the sale of foreign stocks in this country, and he expressed the hope that no member of the Stock Exchange would allow' himself to be persuaded to become a party' to such a transaction. This private circular, -which is nob backed by any administrative regulation, or by the menace of sanctions, has sufficed to make it practically impossible to organise at the present tune the sale of large blocks of foreign stocks in London. No member of the Stock Exchange would dream of going against the Chancellor’s appeal. SPIRIT OF DISCIPLINE. We give these two examples, which go far to show the spirit of discipline existing in the nation. •In these troubled times it is a real standby, aud the foundation upon which national action can be easily built. Mass production in the material as well as in the spiritual sense has many drawbacks. But in this case in the form of a conscious discipline of the masses it is a godsend to Great Britain. In his letter to the chairman of the Stock Exchange, Mr Chamberlain insists that, in spite of many signs of improvement, the situation remains fraught with danger still. He especially warns not to take the, influx of foreign money in the form of short-term investments as a sign of a return to real prosperity. Mr Chamberlain does not want to see the increase in these mobile foreign investments taken as a pretext for long-term British commitments abroad. In other words, as it has done ever since the crisis in 1931, the Treasury wants to see the financial resources of Great Britain maintained in a liquid state, so that a recnidescence of the crisis should not come to us unawares.

It is true that tighter monetary conditions may happen not only as a result of a worsening of tho crisis. Stabilisation of international currencies, whether final or merely temporary, may have the same effect, for in such a case London would cease to be as attractive as it is to-day to the foreign capitalist searching for a safe investment. Still, the Chancellor’s warning is timely to remind the people that the road to prosperity is not without obstacles and that setbacks have to bo provided for. British discipline will do the rest. Disciplined action on a national scale is very necessary in Great Britain nowadays, for there are dangerous rocks ahead. To understand this it is necessary to try to look under tho surface of daily events to discover tho mighty spiritual currents which are the real governors of the national life. LONG STRUGGLE. Here we come to the need of understanding the great struggle which now is on between the north and the south in this country. It is not civil war, because there can bo no bloodshed. But the present tug-of-war between the British north and south is as grim as any other form of civil strife, and the important point about it is that it will outlast this generation, projecting its shadow upon the political life of the country. What is it? If three years ago we should have been asked to point out the .dominating power in British politics we should have named the city of London and the principles of world finance it stands for. This power had reached its pinnacle in 1925, when, so as to maintain the pound as an international currency it was stabilised at a high level of gold Pa A£te"r 1931, when the link of the pound with gold was broken, the autocratic power of the city suffered a sharp decline. Tho north began to assert itself—the north, where tho essential industries of Great Britain are concentrated, the north, which thinks in

terms of production and not of discounted foreign bills. Tho golden sceptre of the city was odious to the industrial north, because it is the symbol of a rule which prefers international finance to national credit. The industrial producer has seen his markets slip away. Ho accused the city of handing them over to his foreign competitors. Unemployment lay heavy upon tho depressed northern areas, where the workless marched in their thousands in procession when they did not fill the street corners. The south, concentrating around tho mighty urban agglomeration of the more prosperous London, felt the pinch of poverty less. Indeed, it used the occasion of hard times and cut prices to attract to itself numberless secondary industrial undertakings which wore forced to migrate from the north so as to bo nearer to their richer clients. The world crisis was the north’s great chance to try to get its own back. So the fight is on. The north is protectionist in principle, and not merely for the sake of a bargain; it is Imperialist and nationalist: it is opposed to the ideas of the London bankers, whom it accuses of preferring the foreign bill to the bale of Manchester textiles. The fight is on. Its cause is economic. But inevitably it is being transferred to the plane of politics. This was seen tho other day, when members of Die House, of Commons belonging to all parties, both Government and Opposition, joined in a strong protest to tho Government against the neglect which they alleged was being shown to the depressed areas in the north. The city still holds up the banner of London as the financial centre of the world. But the north refuses the salute. MUST BE REMEMBERED. If this country were governed on the principle of the dictatorship this conflict would not matter. But we are a democratic country, and we must have parliamentary elections from time to time. For this reason, if for no other, the north, with its majority of voters, has a fighting chance against the sduth. In any case, for years ahead when considering political developments in Great Britain it shall be necessary to remember the existence of the great north-south controversy. We predict, for example, that British policy towards Japan in the years to come will be to a largo extent dominated not by the financial considerations of the city, but by the demands of the textile areas in the north. But British discipline is a guarantee that this essential conflict of interests shall not degenerate into an indecent squabble by which foreign interests may profit.